What Alice Found There
by Dust1
Summary: Chirp doesn't know what is happening. She never has. Not even after being unplugged. Something is far too wrong. Final chapter up! Woohoo! Now I can get on with my next story.
1. Gravy for the Brain

Title: What Alice Found There  
  
Rating:  
  
Genre:  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the copyrighted © Material in here, and I assure you, there is over much. I haven't made any money off this, and I don't own anything you recognise. If you don't recognise it, either you haven't seen or read what it is a reference to, or I thought of it. But I say again, I am not making any money or claiming to own anything. I did however, write this story, so please no fan-fic pirating (not that you'd want to).  
  
Notes (Important): There are sooo many references to movies and books in here that I hope you can spot. It was a little touch I had fun adding, and I hope you enjoy this story.  
  
Thankyou to: Trinity and Neo for being such a hot couple (that isn't what the story is about tho) and. oh yes, thankyou to all the ingenious authors here who inspired me to write fan fiction.  
  
  
  
Part One; Gravy for the brain  
  
  
  
Racism is still alive and thriving on the minds of people everywhere br  
  
Damn, writer's block! The room was dark and distracting. Shapes made shadows that distorted the shape of the room, filling it with monsters and other fearsome things. "Chirp, over and out." said the girl, aloud, scaring herself. They'll hear me. The big question was who, but it was one she couldn't answer. It had been on her mind since she'd seen 'THE MATRIX'. A lot of things had entered her mind just then, so the things didn't seem connected. She shut down the computer, and drifted back to her human self, Alice. In her mind she was Chirp, always and forever. 15 years old and already screwed up. She got up and watched the shapely shadows shift into one another, watched them turn red.  
  
Oh god, oh god, not again!  
  
Moonbeams were glistening on the dark cool stone of the courtyard. Multitudes of stars sparkled in the vast sky. She sat on the edge of the fountain and looked at the gargoyles lining the walls. This was her favourite place to sit, she always felt safe here. No risk of anyone- or anything coming after her. There were sparkly pools of water left in the fountain. The sparkles were weaving in and out like a bunch of confused soldiers. They were starting to look a little like soldiers too; their jackets were red and everything.  
  
1 No! Leave me alone.  
  
Light danced across the elaborate frames that adorned the paintings. She could hear voices lilting whimsically along the perfume-thick air. "Oh, darling would." "What do you think of.?" "Oh isn't." "The girl looks as if she is trying to get out." "There is quite a sophisticated quality to."  
  
I don't like this place. The paintings ranged from sickeningly exquisite to fascinatingly simple. She walked around and marvelled at the raw suffering inlayed in the pictures. She should be getting home. Or they would be here for her- she paused to stare at a magnificent painting of a boat. It seemed so majestic. and so real it was almost moving. But blood seemed to be soaking through the water as if someone had been killed.  
  
Help!  
  
Chirp coughed and coughed and coughed and then lay still. Please say that was the last time. She sat up gingerly, wondering what had jerked her out of it this time. She heard it again. A yell from upstairs. "Alice! Get to bed! You're up far to late!"  
  
Chirp sipped her steaming coffee, ignoring the chattering students infesting the café. A girl two tables over was wearing a bright rainbow scarf and talking loudly about the car she was going to buy. The bell at the door jingled as a group of 'niners' to timidly ordering some drinks and muffins, rubbing their shaved heads nervously. Everything was sharp, almost outlined, like a colouring book. Things didn't drift together here. The door jingled again and a woman in leather entered. Heads turned in her direction, but as her sun-glass-covered stare swept the room, people quickly pretended to forget how much she stood out. Chirp went back to her coffee. God that woman seemed familiar...  
  
Leather clad legs came into Chirp's line of vision and a measured voice spoke to her. "Is this seat taken?"  
  
"No." Said Chirp, overly aware of how sugary her voice sounded. She was also aware of how her plainness showed so near to a beauty such as this. Those thoughts faded when the woman spoke again.  
  
"You have destroyed many- matrices. At least in your own mind. But there is one more you can't find, is that right, Chirp?"  
  
Chirp almost spit her coffee onto the table, but stopped herself just in time. "How'd you find me? I didn't put a picture on my site." She asked, hand over mouth  
  
"We know a lot about you."  
  
I think I have a psycho on my hands here. Not that I can't identify with that. "Could you take your sun glasses off, I have a thing about eye- contact."  
  
The woman took her sunglasses on and put them onto the table, revealing entrancing sapphire-blue eyes that were so beautiful they almost sung aloud. But the pupils were red. or.  
  
2 Fuck, not here! I thought I was safe.  
  
Dark, light, dark, light. The dancers danced in time to the piano music, hardly having any space to move in the crowded room. An ocean of bodies swaying within an inexorable tide of intoxication. Life, light, shadows, music, laughing, singing. The room was so thick with-everything, that it made her feel sick. She didn't even have anyone to dance with. She just had to move along with everyone else so as not to get trampled.  
  
Thank god; get me out of here.  
  
Chirp was lying in the grass, head spinning, emotions clawing through her painfully.  
  
"Do you want to know why that happened?"  
  
Chirp looked around. She was in a park covered in green grass and soft light. "How on earth did I get here?" she thought aloud.  
  
"I brought you here so you wouldn't make a scene. Now answer my question."  
  
"What question?" Then it hit her- "You're dressed like Trinity from the Matrix- you even look- By god, you must be ins-"  
  
"I'm not insane. I am Trinity. Remember the day you saw our movie? What else happened that day?"  
  
Chirp's mind spun like a top. "My mother died." She said, her voice monotone.  
  
"That's why you went to see the movie. To forget the pain. Have you ever connected those two things to what's happening to you now?"  
  
"No." said Chirp quietly. No, no, no.  
  
"I can't stay here long, but we have less time to get you out than I thought. Meet me at the corner of Grace Street nearest to Palmerston Square after school. I have to go."  
  
"Godspeed." Muttered Chirp, curling up in the grass like a potato bug. No, no, no.  
  
"It's worse that we expected Morpheus. But I don't know if she's going to like the solution we can offer." Said Trinity as Morpheus pulled the spike out of her head.  
  
"If she wants to live, she doesn't have a choice." Whispered Neo, his deep voice sweetening the air around Trinity. She stood up deliberately, hoping Neo caught a glance down her shirt.  
  
"How do you know she won't like it?" Tank wondered, his eyes flickering from Morpheus to Trinity as he spoke, and then back again.  
  
"I don't know."  
  
Morpheus didn't say a word, he just watched the green number's descent down the screen, as the little girl's mind stumbled through a network of rebellion.  
  
"It's your choice Chirp. Take the blue pill, and you will wake up in your bed and find whatever truth you can. Take the red pill, and I show you the truth outside of you."  
  
Chirp reached for the red pill, but her hand stopped. She covered her eyes and curled up in the chair.  
  
It's red, it's red.  
  
She was floating in a boat, over still, calm water. Everything was reflected in a glass like pool of enchantment. She petted the large grey bird with it's pure white crown absentmindedly, thinking everything looked pleasantly like an impressionist painting. She picked up her knitting needles and began to knit, the material softly turning from pink to red to.  
  
Oh my god.  
  
Chirp stopped screaming and looked around the warmly coloured room.  
  
Morpheus seemed surprised past words by the unearthly screaming that had been radiating from her.  
  
"Trinity, what's wrong with me?"  
  
"Your mind won't accept the Matrix anymore. It's trying to get free of the program. You have to trust us."  
  
She nodded and took the red pill with a shuddering hand.  
  
Chirp didn't want to open her eyes. There was something that felt like petroleum jelly all around her. It was slick and disgusting against her skin. She moved against it and opened her eyes. The jelly was red as blood. She tried to scream but something metal was down her throat. There was something in her skin and her head and around her too. The struggled wildly to get free of the red jelly and broke to surface like a jumping fish. Her eyes widened as she saw what was around her. She tore frantically at the metal thing stuck down her throat and felt it tear back at her as she pulled it out. Then she screamed. A frightened banshee scream at the sight before her. Millions upon millions of helpless humans, entrapped in an endless field of pods. What was that Remembrance Day poem? In Flander's fields the poppies grow, between the crosses, row on row? Oh so suiting.  
  
The clicking of machine parts and insect like movements warned her all was not well. She screamed at the- thing that hovered in front of her like a great spider hanging off its web. It reached out for her, and she stopped screaming as it fastened it claws around her neck. This was becoming quite fascinating.  
  
The clinking of cutlery against metal, or scraping the inside of a bowl. Lights glaring off the edges of the table. Hands held in secret. Breathing. Dark and light eyes. An odd silence. Broken. "So, what exactly are we doing today?"  
  
"More training."  
  
"Does everyone go see the oracle?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"When will I?"  
  
"When you're ready."  
  
"Oh." Pause. "Excuse me."  
  
Chirp put her hand against the wall and watched the ghostly light patterns move around. They seemed human sometimes, and they spoke too. Voices that wanted company, voices that hated, voices that knew. 


	2. The Wizard of

Notes: Yes, I realise this is a rather short chapter. But what can I say? I have exams. Anyway, There aren't many literary references in this. Try to figure out who the wizard is. Look out for direct connections to the movie. _Enjoy_.  
  
Part Two: The Wizard of  
  
Chirp ran her index finger along the weaving folds in her blanket, turning the story over in her mind. The ghost who couldn't quite solidify was trying to sit on the bed, his see-throughy-self hovering inches above the fabric. Chirp was beginning to get used to the way some ghosts couldn't become solid. "So that's how I became a ghost."  
  
"They put more blame on you in the movie." Said Chirp, wishing she had something more intelligent to say. The cold metal Nebachadnezza and goopy food seemed to have put a stopper on the blossoming intelligence she had gained in the Matrix.  
  
"Well, you know that saying." Said Cypher, scratching his rat like nose. "There are two types of people in this world. The type who blame everyone else, and the type who blame only themselves. We all know which one Morpheus is."  
  
"The actor they chose sure looked a lot like you. So is everyone else ghosts too?"  
  
"Yeah, anyone who gets killed. Lots of them leave after a while, or just get really quiet. I don't intend to."  
  
"I've seen Switch around, but she won't talk to me." She didn't tell Cypher about Mouse or the girl with the umbrella.  
  
"She's traumatised. Morpheus has a knack for unplugging traumatised women. I think the  
  
Jackass gets a kick out of rescuing them or something. Most of them won't let a guy near them. Bitches. But you aren't like them."  
  
"Trinity doesn't seem to mind getting a little- ah. close to Neo. Their bedroom's just one over."  
  
"Don't get me started on Neo."  
  
  
  
Chirp leaned back in her seat watching the green numbers cascade down the screen. She saw the slightest wipper-wind reflection in the screen; Tank approaching. "It's raining in the Matrix." She said.  
  
"You seemed to have picked up the code rather well."  
  
"I wrote that program, you know. The one that teaches you how to read the code." Said Mouse into her ear, barely visible to the trained eye.  
  
"Mouse was a good programmer." Chirp said quietly, as had become her habit.  
  
"Yes, he was." Tank's voice was solemn, and he didn't question Chirp's convenient knowledge.  
  
"I'm not very good. At anything, really."  
  
"You'll find something that you can do well."  
  
"I already have." She said wryly. "Midnight watch."  
  
  
  
Trinity's steady voice registered on Chirp's hearing. It seemed wordless and pointless. Focus your eyes, focus your mind. She was sitting across the table with Neo, not talking anymore. Her  
  
Sapphire blue eyes were focused on Chirp. Traumatised? She didn't seem that way. And Neo still didn't seem used to the goop. He always paused before he slipped the spoon between his expressive lips. Tank and Morpheus weren't there. "You should eat." Said Trinity, something odd in her voice now.  
  
"Why?" Asked Chirp absently. "I'm not hungry, and I never loved food that much in the Matrix. And this"- she gestured to the goop- "is no improvement."  
  
Trinity said nothing. Quiet, not traumatised.  
  
"You know, I always hated the rain until I discovered how inspiring it was. It always made the summers beautiful. The days were just packed with fun. And if it rained, my cousins and I would play cards. Of course, that all changed when my mother died."  
  
Neo gave Trinity an unsure look, and she nodded. He used his neglected voice, and spoke up. "You know that none of that happened. The Matrix wasn't real, and neither were those rainy days."  
  
"Yes it was." Chirp felt tears push at her eyes. "Everything that happened happened. The Matrix is more real than this place."  
  
"Your mind rebelled against the program. If it was so real, why did that happen?" asked Neo.  
  
Trinity had gone very pale, but was pretending to enjoy her 'food'.  
  
"Because I was failing school. Because bad things were happening. Because I couldn't stand it any longer." She paused, feeling tear slide down her face. Crying always made her feel silly. "But I have memories of beauty, and letting go of those would be letting go of the chance any thing like that could happen again."  
  
"Remember what I told you about her." Urged Cypher, quieter than a butterfly.  
  
Chirp continued. "You all let go so easily. Trinity, I know what you left behind. You could have worked it out if you'd tried, but no, Morpheus comes and rescues you and you take the red pill without a thought."  
  
"You took the red pill, and you knew the consequences." Lashed Trinity, venom in her eyes.  
  
"My mind wasn't exactly in the condition to make an educated choice now was it?" Chirp replied cockily.  
  
She left the room, much like she had every other time she had had a meal with other people. Maybe her subconscious was trying breaking a world record. It seemed to make all her other decisions.  
  
  
  
Chirp lingered behind the monitors, watching the wires snake through a jungle of technology. There was nothing beautiful here except that window into the real world that was closely guarded by Morpheus and Tank. She would have gone to look at the Matrix, if the two hadn't been kissing. This wasn't new to her; she just wasn't keen on interrupting. In their words, soldiers often had to forget their attachment to other soldiers and leave them behind. "Chirp." Said a just-past-silent voice, near her face.  
  
Chirp turned her head toward it, and saw a paler than pale ghost, androgynous and 'traumatised'.  
  
"Yes Switch?"  
  
A muscle jerked in the ghost's cheek. "Come with me."  
  
The sentence should have been followed with a million silent question marks, but Chirp couldn't hear them. She followed.  
  
Switch could become almost completely solid, but she had only eight words to say to chirp. It was punctuated be a strict look and piercing dark brown eyes. "Chirp, you have to stop talking to Cypher."  
  
Chirp whimpered. "But. but he listens to me. He understands the way I feel."  
  
The ghost was gone, but she left an un-erasable impression on Chirps delicate mind. You have to stop talking to Cypher  
  
It was almost a threat. 


	3. Today is the Tommorow I Hated Yesterday

Notes: As I said, part three is a poem. Sorry about the delays. Part four is coming up, I've got a brand new idea. Can you catch it in part three?   
  
  
  
Part Three: Today is the tommorow you feared yesterday   
------------------------------------------------------  
  
We live in a world of shapeshifting colourlessness,  
where voices echo against devoid metal like words within my head,  
and I can see them watching back,   
I wish I were dead,  
but the voices don't see,  
and the eyes don't hear,  
the shadows fall softly,  
Funny, the truth was never quite clear.  
  
Overlapping sight with darkness and spinning blind,  
it doesn't matter if you close your eyes,   
I can hear too many voices,  
and all they all tell painfull lies,  
I can't sleep anymore,  
all thats left is fear,  
the shadows fall softly,  
Funny, the truth was never quite clear.  
  
Too many voices.  
Too much light.  
All is lost,  
every frost-bitten night. 


	4. Outside-in

NOTES: This story has totally spun out of control. Something happened that _I_ wasn't expecting. The reviewers mentioned that the second chapter was confusing. After reading it over, I quite agree. I don't understand why no body said that about the first chapter, but that isn't the point. Anyway, I tried to make this one a little less disjointed and a little less pointless. Enjoy.  
  
p  
  
QUESTION FOR YOU: I haven't really explained how Chirp looks, so if you happen to review this chapter, I am curious to know how you picture her.  
  
p  
  
_______PART 3: OUTSIDE-IN__________  
  
p  
  
The Oracle blew another spiral of smoke into the air. Chirp watched it float lazily across the ceiling like a tired ghost. She hadn't spoken to Cypher in a week. He hadn't come to seen her. She hadn't looked. Something about Switch had left a deep impression. The smell of cigarette smoke had permeated the room, and Chirp's throat longed for the taste. The Oracle wetted her lips and spoke. "If you want one so badly, have one."  
  
Chirp snapped out of it, confused. She blinked and focused again. God, I must look like a stoner. She fumbled to light the cigarette, and put it to her mouth, inhaling the mundane-ness of it all.  
  
"You're confused Chirp. You always have been."  
  
Chirp shrugged. The terracotta floor tiles glistened back at her, collecting light from the delicate window. She blinked deliberately. Focus, focus.  
  
"You think you don't matter. You're wrong."  
  
Chirp looked up at The Oracle, then down at her leather skirt, and the wooden chair she was sitting in. "I never said that."  
  
The Oracle put out her cigarette. "You didn't need to." She paused, trying to catch Chirp's eye, which was following the path of an invisible bug. Chirp looked up. "Chirp, you can't stay here long. Your subconscious doesn't like this place, even if you do."  
  
"And since when is it the boss?"  
  
The Oracle looked regretful, and it sounded in her voice. "You know that something is wrong. Possibly with you."  
  
Chirp flicked her finished cigarette behind the refrigerator.  
  
"You aren't useless." Said the Oracle.  
  
Chirp made a frustrated noise in her throat. "I never said that."  
  
"You didn't need to."  
  
Chirp rubbed her eyes. "So can I go now?"  
  
"Morpheus went through a lot of trouble to bring you here. Whether or not you will be worth the trouble is your choice. Something is wrong, you'll soon find out what it is. I'd give you advice, but I know you don't care. You may leave."  
  
The words passed over Chirp's head, and she got up to leave, moving that hanging beads in the doorway aside. They plinked against each other, swinging back into place.  
  
The Oracle's adopted children were painting a whimsical mural on the wall. Chirp envied the way they could hold the paintbrushes in the air without touching them. A little girl with thick orange braids giggled as she painted her friend's baldhead blue.  
  
Chirp left the room.  
  
Chirp looked at Morpheus. The silence was painfully definite and seemed to stretch for miles. No one had spoken to her for a long time it seemed, although the oracle had only moments ago. It had been days since someone aboard the Neb had thrown sound waves in her direction. Her ears hurt whenever they did. Morpheus walked silently down the hallway, shiny leather swishing along the air. Chirp followed. By the time they reached the car, Chirp was just waiting for her mind to jump, and as she saw the shapes on the reflective black paint turn red, she knew what was coming.  
  
p  
  
God dammit.  
  
p  
  
The chess game was painfully slow, and the pieces squeaked across the magnetic board. She hated chess. She hated how every movement could mean life or death, and every piece had a twin and two clones. She hated how the only word spoken was 'check' and occasionally 'check' was paired with 'mate'. She hated…  
  
p  
  
God help me.  
  
p  
  
Chirp snapped out of it, and looked frantically at Morpheus, seeing herself reflected intricately in his glasses. He shook his smooth, dark head. "I don't think you'll be making any more Matrix-Visits. At least until you've had more training."  
  
He offered his hand to her, but she declined the rough feeling of skin against skin and laughed oddly as she got up.  
  
Morpheus made sure she was in the car before driving away. He felt as if she was going to disappear into the unreal air that enveloped them. He was glad to see her safely to the Neb.  
  
p  
  
*  
  
p  
  
Chirp collapsed on her bed, feeling the rough folds of her blanket against her neck a through the threadbare material. It felt like grade zero steel wool against her sensitive spine. She threw herself violently from the bed, bruising herself on the unyielding metal that made the wall and the floor and the bars of her prison. She lay there feeling alone and lost and trying to remember how to cry. "Cypher, Cypher, come back." She whispered against the floor.  
  
~ I'm here ~  
  
"Thank god. I'm not sure the others like me."  
  
His voice seemed to come from inside her; it was more intense, as if he could hear her every thought. ~ They don't like you. ~  
  
She sat up, checking all her limbs and her back and head for aches. She could find no place that didn't. Pictures of learning to ride a bike and climbing trees and otherwise falling rushed through her mind. Chirp looked around. "Where are you Cypher?"  
  
~ I'm in you're mind now. You don't mind.~  
  
"You're what?" Chirp almost screamed.  
  
~ Don't worry, you're mind is strong; you can take it. ~  
  
//Since when is my mind strong? I never invited him.//  
  
~ You didn't have to. I know you need me. ~  
  
//You can hear my mind. Am I insane?//  
  
~ You are saner than Trinity or Neo or Morpheus. ~  
  
p  
  
*  
  
p  
  
It was a while before Trinity made herself go to Chirp's room. She couldn't make herself like the girl, no matter how she tried. Chirp seemed to know all the bad things about everyone, and just how to make them hurt. She had undeniably bizzare behavior. When she spoke, which was seldom, it didn't make sense. It was irrational, or the grammer didn't quite check out with the english language. It all made Trinity uncomfortable.  
  
Trinity was alone in the galley, right below Chirp's room. She had been enjoying the quiet when the blurry words came from above her. Screams. Screams that echoed through the metal dividing them and permeated the much wanted silence.  
  
So Trinity went up, to see what was going on with the bad egg.  
  
She was lying on the floor, thin and pale- breakable. Trinity took in the bruises on her arms, the scratches on her bare skin. Her wide eyes looked up at Trinity. The flat, reptile-like gaze made Trinity doubt the girl coud see her.  
  
p  
  
*  
  
p  
  
Chirp wasn't fully listening to Morpheus until he said the word 'Scizophrenia'. She was too busy with Cypher and the whisperers. The whisperers never stoped whispering. ~Do you remember how to run?~Brush your hair~Today you are going to kill yourself my friend~Ooh, look at that pretty lady~ /whisper,whisper/  
  
Cypher only talked when she was being stupid. Or when she talked to other people.  
  
The whisperers were whispering across her thread-bare mind, pulled tight like an elastic.  
  
~Your having fun~Sleep is wrong you know~Scratch your nose~  
  
Chirp scratched her nose.  
  
Morpheus looked at her seriously. "There isn't much we can do. There aren't any phyciatric wards in Zion that treat scizophrenia."  
  
"I don't mind."  
  
Trinity looked at Chirp, her large blue eyes the only beauty seen on the Neb. "Zion sent back your diagnosis Chirp. Scizophrenia... my god. There are drugs. It's really up to you."  
  
"What do /you/ want Chirp. What do you want to do." Inquired Morpheus, his deep voice grinding against Chirps ear-drums.  
  
She wished she could cry.  
  
"I don't know. This isn't like a book."  
  
She felt like breaking. ~Don't cry, silly~a book? ha!~Tell them what you think~  
  
"Things don't just stop... there is no logical ending is there? Things don't stop, they keep going. Not like in books. They don't stop happening."  
  
pp  
  
THE END  
  
p  
  
okay, sorry about the weak ending.  
  
I lost control. I had to stop.  
  
NOTE: I don't have scizophrenia, I don't claim to know what it feels like. These are just guesses I've made from what I've read about scizophrenia. 


End file.
